IceAgeSafari in Central Europe along the Rhine Valley migration channel – Mid‐Late Pleistocene spotted, brown, stripped hyena palaeobiogeography and evolution

Abstract

At the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 21, 800,000 BP), three distinct hyenas remained to appear in Europe with the spotted hyena (Crocuta), brown hyena (Parahyaena) and striped hyena (Hyaena). Each developed in monophyletic lineages, whereas rare brown hyena Parahyaena brunnea mosbachensis (Geib, 1915) and striped hyena Hyaena hyaena prisca De Serres, Dubreuil and Jeanjean, (1828) did not change in their dentition morphology much to their modern forms. Those warm period extinct hyenas did not migrate from Africa over the Rhine Graben migratory channel to Central Europe after the late Mid‐Pleistocene Holsteinian Interglacial (MIS 9). The spotted hyenas took over the niche of European hyenas with their appearance in warm and cold periods. Those used more and more cave entrances as dens between Spain and Siberia. Their more rapid dental change coevolved from the largest “giant hyena” Crocuta brevirostris Boule, (1893) (Early Pleistocene, MIS 40‐20), over Crocuta intermedia De Serres, Dubreuil and Jeanjean, 1828 (Early Mid‐Pleistocene, MIS 19‐12), C. praespelaea Schütt, 1971 (Early Mid‐Pleistocene, MIS 11‐6), to Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) (Early Mid‐Pleistocene, MIS 5‐3), which is genetically a subspecies to Modern African extant Crocuta crocuta crocuta Erxleben, 1777 (MIS 2‐1). Spotted hyenas developed a perfect thick‐skin cutter M1 by elongation and bone crusher conical P4 teeth. This adaptation to their main thick‐skin big game guilt: elephants, rhinos and hippos.